One of the exits is understood to be Francesco Taglietti, an executive director (ED) in Goldman's equity derivatives trading business. A Goldman Sachs 'lifer,' Taglietti joined the firm in 2010 after graduating from Italy's Bocconi University. Insiders say he was a rising star with a reputation for being a, "big risk taker."

The other exiting trader is thought to be James Spooner, another ED and structured products trader who was effectively running a chunk of Goldman's funds derivatives business. Like Taglietti, Spooner was a lifer; he joined Goldman in 2008 and worked his way up.

Neither Goldman Sachs, Taglietti or Spooner responded to a request to comment on their apparent exits. Taglietti is no longer on Goldman's internal directory. Spooner is, but was not at his desk when we called.

Spooner and Taglietti's exits are surprising given their success at Goldman and the likelihood that both would be promoted to managing director in 2019. There are suggestions that the managing director title at Goldman Sachs has less cachet than before.

As we reported previously, Goldman has also been losing up-and-coming traders and structurers from its macro desk in London. Juniors complained that the firm is taking less risk, paying less and pursuing flow revenues ahead of the solutions revenues that were its strong point in the past.

The exits come as Barclays, Credit Suisse and Citi are building their equity derivatives businesses. Barclays announced this morning that it hired Neil Staff from Credit Suisse as global head of exotics trading and head of equity derivatives trading for EMEA. Deutsche Bank, however, has been quietly cutting equity derivatives staff, including Martin Evans, its former head of linear corporate and special situations trading in London